People Australia

Francis de Winton (Frank) Kitchingman (1873-1933) painter, coalminer, trade union official

Birth: 16 March 1873 at Taradale, Victoria, son of Edwin Lewis Kitchingman (1829-1909), a mining manager, born at Glasbury, Breconshire, Wales, and Tasmanian-born Mary Eliza, née Jeffs (1844-1913). Marriages: (1) 25 December 1896 at Albert Park, Victoria, to Hannah Martha Jones (1874-1897). (2) 1900 in Victoria, to Elizabeth Chaffey (1876-1969) They had four daughters and four sons. Death: 22 November 1933 at West Brunswick, Victoria. 

• Gained trade as a painter and signwriter. Coalminer at Jumbunna and Outtrim in the early 1900s.
• “In pre-Federation days it was difficult to find an outspoken Laborite in Gippsland who was capable of expressing the tenets of Labor and defending its platform…(which Frank Kitchingham did). The establishment of the State Coal Mine at Wonthaggi somewhat altered matters and a re-division of State parliamentary seats that enabled Wonthaggi to elect a Labor representative”.
• After coalminers strike in Gippsland in 1903, he returned to his trade in Korumburra.
• President of the Political Labor Council (later ALP) Korumburra branch.
• President of Mornington District Council; President, Flinders Campaign Council.
• Moved by 1919 to Drouin south, where he was a farmer. Moved to Brunswick in 1922 and lived there until his death.
• Cause of death: coronary thrombosis.

Sources
Labor Call (Melbourne), 30 November 1933.